


Journey to Another Hell III

by Feygan



Series: Journey to Another Hell [3]
Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Anita Blake
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairing, M/M, Slash, vamp!Xander
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-16
Updated: 2010-12-16
Packaged: 2017-10-13 16:59:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/139565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feygan/pseuds/Feygan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anita is bailed out of jail then there's a mystery to solve. *SLASH* [Xander/Jean-Claude/Asher]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Journey to Another Hell III

###    
1\. One

Title: Journey to Another Hell III  
Author: Feygan  
Fandom: Buffy/Anita Blake  
Pairing: Xander/Jean-Claude  
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Anita Blake Vampire Hunter.

.  
.  
" _A day--night--in the life of three vampires. It all began innocuously enough... with the shooting of a twelve year old girl by the human servant of the gorgeously great and handsome Jean-Claude, Master of St. Louis. Of course, Anita Blake, licensed vampire executioner, is a psychopath with control issues and an inability to understand that sexy Xander Harris is far beyond her reach for vengeance because if she ever made a wrong move, he would snap her neck like a twig and use her still twitching body as a snowboard, because hey, California born and bred doesn't automatically mean a lack of like for the snow. Still, it's hard to understand why Xander, handsome, charming, intelligent, sex-kitten to Jean-Claude, is willing to rescue said psychotic with control issues from the pokey. Maybe it has to do with the rewards he is sure to reap from the Master's luscious form? Maybe it has to do with..._ "

"All right, Xander, enough with the external monologue," Jason said. He'd been waiting for them at the police station, leaning against the wall next to the double doors, waiting for them before going in.

Xander shot the werewolf a quirky grin. "Aw, tell me you love me and maybe then I'll stop. Or tell me to hurt you more, and I'll make it real good for you."

Jason shot him a nervous look, which just made Xander laugh and sling an arm around the smaller man's shoulders. He knew that he wasn't exactly Jason's favorite person, but it was all good. It wasn't like he cared about anyone else's opinion but his own anyway.

"Stick with me, man, you'll see the world the way it was meant to be seen." Xander's lips almost brushed Jason's ear as he breathed, "Bathed... in... blood."

Jason twitched away, which just made Xander laugh and let him go, returning back to walking next to Jean-Claude. He didn't quite touch the master vampire, but it was a near thing.

"Must you tease him so?" Jean-Claude asked.

Xander shot him a sparkling glance. "Of course. I have to get my fun from somewhere... and Jason is just that easy."

A faint smile quirked Jean-Claude's lips for a minute, but it didn't last. He was worried about Anita and it showed itself in his complete lack of expression as they passed through the doors and into the police station.

"Wow, I haven't been to a police station in awhile," Xander said, low-voiced. "The last time was when we killed the Chief of Police after eating his wife and daughter in front of him." He sighed regretfully. "Good times. Good times."

"Is that true?" Jason asked Asher.

"What are you asking him for?" Xander demanded. "He wasn't there. And of course it's true. Sunnydale was my town, and I ruled it with a bloody fist and a mouth full of hungry teeth. Those were the days of fun and games. I miss them, and if it wasn't for Jean-Claude, I would miss them even more."

"You're a strange one," Jason said.

"I've heard that before," Xander admitted. "Though not since I was Turned. People were always afraid after that, no one wanting to say anything to make me mad. I don't know why people were always so scared... it wasn't like I was a raging psychopath or anything." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Oh, wait..."

He loved how scared Jason was of him. It was a bittersweet reminder of the home he'd left behind.

Back in the day, he'd been the favorite of the Master, one of his top enforcers along with Willow. Boy, did he miss Willow. She was the best to kill with, even though her Turning into a vampire had pretty much fried her mind. She was still his best friend though, and that had to count for something, even if they were both soulless monsters bent on the mindless consumption of human lives.

It had felt great to know that everyone in their little world was afraid of them. Sunnydale was their home town, and their every word was law. The Master had pretty much let them do whatever they wanted. No one had been able to stand in their way.

Now he was in a world where he had no real kind of reputation and no one cared about him one way or the other. At least he'd found Jean-Claude... The Master of the City was willing to take care of him, and that was of the good. Everything was just so strange here, and he really didn't like the having to play nicey-nice with the humans.

Everything was just so damn different from what he was used to. It felt almost like he had gone back to being the loser he had been before he was first Turned, back to when he was Xander Harris, butt of all jokes.

When he thought back to his human years, he couldn't believe how much of a loser he had been.

The greatest things that had ever happened to him were meeting Willow, being possessed by a hyena, then being Turned into a vampire. Everything else had been crap and the moments of true control over his own life had been few and far between.

The first thing he had done after he'd been Turned--after jumping a defenseless jogger and draining her dry, of course--was to take his parents out of the picture. He hadn't even bothered to feed on them, not wanting to be contaminated by any more of their blood, had just tortured them until they had stopped screaming, then chopped them up into little pieces that he'd fed to the neighbors dogs. It had been a bit of fun that he even now thought back on with fondness. Those were the days.

He knew he was a soulless demon with a thirst for blood and violence, but at the same time he didn't feel all that much different from the human boy he had once been. He had just been freed from all inhibitions, but he was still Xander.

Maybe that was why this whole living in another universe thing didn't make him feel as weird as it should. Sure, he'd lost a lot of his authority and he had to depend on other reputations to carry him through the day, but inside he was still Xander Harris, ruthless lieutenant in the Master's army, and a part of him would always believe that it was just a matter of time before he was ruling the world.

His plans for domination hadn't been set aside. They'd just been changed a little to include his love for Jean-Claude, his chosen consort.

* * *

  
Xander had fallen into a thinking silence, which made Jason a bit nervous. There was just something about the guy that completely freaked him out.

All vampires were predators, it was just a given, and they all had a taste for the violence and the pain, but Xander... he took it to a whole new level of psychosis. There was a hunger shining out of him and it was never going to be satisfied until the rivers ran red and humanity was reduced to scrabbling in the dark as they were hunted for food.

There was a nightmare living in Xander's eyes, and Jason really didn't want to see it come true.

Xander was good looking in a "going to be a teenager forever" kind of way, but his eyes were mad things sparkling with hidden dark delights, and they made him older than he was. It was no wonder that Jason was scared of him and the younger vampires shied away from him with spooked expressions.

He would happily kill them all, and it was right there in the way he looked at the world as though it was something to be devoured. He was a real monster, and not like the civilized ones people were used to around here. He was wild and hungry.

Jason had to wonder what Humans First would say if they ever met Xander. He wasn't the usual kind of monster they faced, and it was obvious in the way he laughed about death and destruction and rolled his eyes at thoughts of the end of the world.

He spoke of his home as though it were a mythical land of fun and chocolate, not a nightmare that any sane person would have been glad to escape. Even the few stories Jason had managed to sit through about Sunnydale had left him shuddering even as Xander waxed eloquent about all the great stuff they were missing--the death, the decapitations, the exsanguination parties, the demon fighting, the humans kept as pets and abused for entertainment. It was a horrible place to think about and Jason didnt even want to know where it was, much less want to go there.

Jason knew that the only reason Xander let him or the others live was because of Jean-Claude. The guy had no fear of the police or of what they could do to him. In fact, he had laughed about the laws protecting vampires from the machinations of humans. He was amused by them thinking that he needed to be saved from anyone. And after getting to know him a little better, Jason thought that he had a right to think that the rest of the world should fear him.

It was because of that feral intensity that Jean-Claude kept Xander out of the limelight. The world just wasn't ready for someone that was such a complete monster and reveled in his lack of humanity.

Xander was one scary motherfucker, and there was no denying that. Jason was just glad he wasn't on the guy's wrong side. It would be a long, painful death.

.

Almost all attention turned their way when they entered the police station. The Master of the City was making an appearance and everyone wanted to get their view on. Anyone else would have been self-conscious under all those eyes, but Jean-Claude just kept moving coolly forward, Xander and Asher at his shoulders and Jason trailing along behind, watching their asses flex as they walked and wondering what was going to happen and whether it was going to be as bad as he thought it was going to be.

Jean-Claude strode up to the desk sergeant and leaned calmly against the counter. "I am here to post bail for Anita Blake," he said.

The guy didn't even glance at his computer. "There is no bail listing for Blake," he said. "You'll have to talk to Sergeant Storr about what's happening with her." It was almost comical how careful he was not to meet the vampire's eyes.

Jean-Claude gave a single nod. "Very well. Please direct me to the good detective."

The desk jockey called a uniform over. "Can you show them to Sergeant Storr?"

"Sure," the officer said, and led the way through the police station toward where Sergeant Storr was waiting, a big man with his arms crossed aggressively.

From the first moment Jason had met Dolph Storr, he had scented that the man didn't like lycanthropes, vampires, or any other monsters and that dislike had only grown as his personal life insisted on getting in the way of the Job.

Looking at Xander out of the corner of his eye, he had to wonder how the police officer would take his first meeting with the Master of the City's new toy. He had a feeling that things weren't going to go too well.

Xander was not the kind of person that would take any crap without throwing his own variety back--and his usually involved blood and gore and the kind of physical damage that normal humans couldn't survive. It was looking to be a bad scene all around.

"Behave yourself, mon amour," Jean-Claude said, low-voiced.

Xander just grinned and shrugged his leather clad shoulders. No matter what anyone said, he still insisted on wearing wife-beaters and leather, looking like a perverted old man's idea of a wet-dream. The fact that he could rip the head off of anyone that insulted his choice in clothes was the only thing that kept people from truly insisting he change. "I'll be a good boy, daddy. I promise."

Jean-Claude sighed a little exasperatedly, but Jason could tell he was somewhat amused. There was just something about Xander that had Jean-Claude cutting him the kind of slack that not even Anita had received. It was actually pretty weird.

"Jean-Claude," the large black-haired man said, barely looking up from the stack of papers he held. The tenseness of his shoulders gave away how unhappy he was.

"Ah, good detective. Perhaps you can be so kind as to tell me why Anita has been taken into custody." Butter couldn't melt in the mouth that bred that silk-smooth voice.

"There was an incident," Storr said. "A kid was shot. Anita's being held until the charges can be cleared... or proved."

"You know that Anita would not purposely hurt an innocent child," Jean-Claude said.

"Whatever Anita may or may not have done in the past, I'm not so sure of any of it now." He turned his head to glare in Xander's general direction, still careful enough not to look him directly in the eyes. "And who are you?"

Xander smirked at the man, which made Jean-Claude and Asher tense nervously. "I'm a little bit of this and a lot a bit of that, but bottom line: don't piss me off. You won't like me when I'm mad." He laughed a little. "Did you see how I fit that whole Hulk reference in there?" he said as an aside to Asher.

"Was that a threat?" Storr demanded.

Xander opened his mouth to say something, but Jason stepped forward, putting himself into the breach. "No, no, that wasn't a threat. That's just how Xander is."

Storr looked at him dismissively, probably thinking he was Anita and the Master of the City's toy to play with. He should have felt offended, but he had heard about Storr's bullshit of the last couple of years, and really, he just didn't care.

"Dude, you totally don't have to defend me to this guy, man," Xander said, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him out of the way with effortless ease.

Jason's feet skidded against the floor and he hit his hip against the side of a desk. It didn't hurt, but he could tell this was going to be some trouble. Xander wasn't going to back down, and Storr didn't know that Xander felt no need to follow the rules about not hurting humans.

"Who are you?" Storr asked, glaring at Xander's chest.

The vampire stepped forward, invading the detective's personal space. "My name is Xander," he said. "I can either be a good friend, a bad enemy, or the worst kind of nightmare you'll ever meet."

"I think you're trying to threaten me," Storr said. He looked over at Perry. "Did you hear him just threaten me?"

"Oh no, no," Xander said, wagging a languid finger. "I don't do threats. When I want something done, it happens. Then people realize they've pissed me off. And you? You're just a bug at my feet and I care about as much for you."

Jason glanced at Jean-Claude, wondering if the Master was going to step in and stop his lover from getting himself into trouble. But Jean-Claude was just watching what was going on with a blank expression on his face, his eyes lidded.

"You better watch yourself, vamp," Storr growled. Unconsciously, he began flexing his shoulders, making himself up bigger. "You might end up in a cell downstairs."

Xander laughed and relaxed, all the tension running out of him. "You know what, you're a pretty funny guy. You're just lucky I'm so cool. Some of my line, they can get a little mindlessly violent, if you know what I mean. But me? I was the Childe of a planner, and even without a soul to back me up, I can maintain my control." He leaned close. "Just don't push me, man. I'm not as nice as the vamps you're used to meeting. I've never been as nice as them."

With that, Xander glided back away from Storr until he was next to Jean-Claude, then a step or so behind him, peeking over the Master of the City's shoulder. And if Jason hadn't seen it for himself, he might not have believed it, but Xander then proceeded to make flirty eyes at the detective, a smirk twisting his lips.

Storr growled low in his throat, turning back to Jean-Claude. "I'll let you take Blake for now. But the grandparents of the dead girl still want her brought up on charges for murder."

"Fine. If Anita is guilty, we shall be sure to bring her back to face the justice of the American legal system," Jean-Claude said in a voice so smooth it didn't even sound sarcastic.

Storr shook his head and walked away from them, frustrated anger rising from him in almost visible waves.

"Well that was fun," Xander said, sounding amused. "Now I know why you like him, Jean-Claude. He's fun."

"You shall behave yourself, mon amour. We do not need the kind of trouble police can cause."

Xander shrugged. "Whatever."

Jean-Claude made a tsking sound with his teeth. "Xander."

Xander threw his hands up. "Fine, whatever. I will leave him alone unless he tries something with me. Then all bets are off."

"Fine," Jean-Claude said. "As long as you are not caught."

Jason felt a shiver go through him. Jean-Claude had been following human laws without a single sign that he wanted to do anything else. So his even hinting that he would let Xander torture and kill a police detective was very kind of disquieting because it was a sign of how much of a monster Jean-Claude really was under the thin veneer of civilization.

Maybe we really are monsters, Jason thought. Then was surprised by how much that thought didn't bother him.

 

###    
2\. Two

She was sitting on the bunk in the corner, her arms wrapped around her drawn up legs, wondering how everything could have gone so wrong so fast. One minute she had everything, more than she had ever wanted, then she had nothing, _and_ she was in jail.

"What happened..." She pressed her cheek against her knees, feeling the knobby bones through the skin.

The sound of a door sliding open and footsteps approaching had her sliding her feet back down to the floor and straightening up. She turned to face the door, wincing only a little when Zebrowski appeared.

"Looks like you're being let out, Anita," he said.

She stood up, straightening her shirt. "Why? I thought the grandparents wanted me to be held forever." She was proud of how much of the bitterness she managed to keep out of her voice.

"Come on, Anita, it's not that bad. So they think you purposely blew a hole in their only surviving grandkid. We all know it was an accident, really."

"Great. That makes me feel loads of better," she said, taking a deep shuddery breath. "Besides, there was something very wrong with that girl."

"Like she was alive?" Zerbrowski asked, gesturing for the officer with him to open the cell door.

"Shut up," she said, brushing past him.

"Your boyfriend's here," he called after her. "You know, the dead one."

She turned her head to look at him. "Jean-Claude is here?" she asked in surprise. She hadn't felt him at all. Usually she knew when he was close by, but right now she wasn't getting much of anything from him other than the fact that he was still undead.

"Yep. He's upstairs right now with Dolph."

"Oh shit."

"That's right. You better hurry that tight ass up there before things get completely out of control."

She smirked at him, feeling somehow lighter for just having him around. "You know you love me."

"I'd love to love you, baby," he said.

Anita laughed. "I think I'm going to tell Katie about that one. Quoting old songs?" She shook her head. "You need to have your wit recharged post quick."

He grinned at her as she hurried down the corridor, the officer almost jogging to catch up. She needed to get to Jean-Claude before Dolph completely lost control of himself.

* * *

  
Xander crossed his arms and leaned against the wall behind Jean-Claude. He had honestly been expecting some kind of excitement coming here, but so far... nothing.

He was so tired of all the boring nicey-niceness of this world. What he needed was some action. Either that or some more sex.

"Let's go," he suggested quietly. "I needs me some Jean-Claude lovin'."

The older vampire snorted amusedly. "Be that as it may, _mon amour_ , we shall wait until we are certain Anita has truly been set free before we indulge ourselves in our usual debauchery."

Xander sighed heavily. "But this is boring!" he whined.

"It will not be much longer," Jean-Claude said.

"It better not be," Xander said, low-voiced. "Or I'm going to have to find some way to amuse myself. And it won't be all fun and games for someone."

His demon was scratching at the walls of his mind, wanting to be let out to play. Since his Turning, he hadn't really had to practice any kind of self-control and he had become used to doing _whatever_ he wanted, whenever he wanted with no concern for consequence or merely human sensibilities.

Forever seventeen and with no reason to practice any kind of self-restraint... it came with a definite sense of godliness, as though he could do whatever he wanted and there would never be any such thing as consequences.

"Man but this sucks," he muttered. "All this trouble just to save that dumb bitch who hates me."

"What did you call me?"

"And if it isn't herself, herself." He pasted on a patentedly false smile. "How you doin' Anita? Kill anymore children?"

"I don't know, have you?" Even standing between two cops, she still wore her usual attitude. And it was obvious she still hated him, which was always worth a giggle.

He sniffed the air loudly. "Yum, au de prison. It's a nice smell for you. You should totally get used to it."

He could practically feel the air vibrating with her rage, but she wasn't dumb enough to attack him in a room full of cops. That didn't mean she wasn't going to try and make him pay later, but that was half the fun of baiting her. And the other half was knowing that someday he would push her so far she really would attack him seriously and he would be allowed to beat her to the brink of death.

He knew he couldn't kill her because it would probably kill Jean-Claude too and he really didn't want that. But he figured he could weaken her enough that he would have time to cut off her arms and legs, lock her in a box with intravenous tubes to feed her, and basically keep her body alive forever, or until he figured out a way to release Jean-Claude from the yoke of her presence.

Sometimes he realized exactly how far behind he had left the merely human Alexander Harris. Then he would remember how much of a loser that boy had been and he would go back to enjoying the _now_.

He was a monster. He _knew_ he was a monster. Soulless and unfettered from anything even resembling a conscience or concern. Which is why he could take things as they came and didn't even blink at the thought of killing anyone that crossed his path.

He had even sometimes dreamed of killing Willow. Slowly ripping her apart just to hear her scream, to see her writhe and watch her eyes fill with a surprised wondering, silently questioning "Why?" And all just so he could shrug and answer in all honesty, "Because I can."

Which was the reason he did any of the things he did.

He didn't have a soul and hadn't since the night he let go of his mortality for the last time.

Sometimes, when things were slow, he thought about the last moments of his mortal life.

Possessed by a mentally deteriorating hyena-spirit, he hadn't even known enough to be afraid. The last of his pack, he had been taken down by six minions so the Master could make him anew.

He could still hear the sounds of Willow and Tor's roaring screams as they watching him--their queen--being subdued.

Now he could laugh a little at the thought of himself being possessed by the only female hyena spirit, while Willow and the others held the consciousness of the lesser males. A matriarchy, and he was the queen. He could totally imagine fate laughing.

From demon-possessed teenager to teenaged vampire, it was a strange world after all. And now he was here, in another dimension where vampires had legal rights and "responsibilities" like getting jobs and paying taxes.

He could _feel_ his mouth forming a shark-like grin and didn't even attempt to stop it.

"What are you grinning at?" a male voice demanded.

Xander's attention snapped to Storr's face. "Are you talking to me?" he asked, his voice deceptively mild. He could feel the sudden rush-rush of his fight-kill instinct--running away was for losers.

"I asked why you're standing there with that stupid grin on your face when a little girl is dead." Storr was a big strong man and was probably tough for a human. But to Xander the man was a joke, useless but for the hot blood in his veins.

"I'm grinning because I'm gonna have some fun later," Xander said. He knew Jean-Claude wanted him to play it cool and he really would try not to suddenly snap and kill everyone in the place.

"You should show more respect," Storr said.

"Dolph..." Anita actually sounded nervous. It made Xander smile brighter. She knew that if he was pushed he wouldn't even hesitate to kill the detective and anyone else that crossed his path.

"Aw, don't worry 'Nita, I can control myself," he said. "But if he really wants to start something..." He left it hanging.

"Are you threatening me?" Storr growled. "I can have your ass thrown behind bars for threatening a police officer."

"Now, now, detective, Alexander meant no such thing," Jean-Claude said in that rolling purr of his.

Xander smoothly slid next to Asher, leaning against the blond man's side and twining an arm around his waist. "He looks like a big juicy steak, doesn't he?" he murmured, making Asher twitch. "Don't you just wanna take a bite? Just suck him dry?"

"You're so vulgar," Asher said, but he sounded amused.

"It's the only way to be, Ashy. I'm not gonna lie and hide myself behind the mask of harmless lapdog."

"And is that what you think I do?" Asher turned to face him, frowning just a little.

Xander ignored Jean-Claude trying to soothe Detective Storr's ruffled feathers. "Aw, Asher, you're anything _but_ a harmless lapdog. You're a giant bengal tiger, Sheer-Con for a modern age, beautiful and deadly and _not_ to be toyed with by anyone."

Asher's lip quirked. "Sometimes I think that if you worked at it, you could be a subtle kind of dangerous."

Xander smirked. "Maybe I'm so subtle you don't even notice it."

Asher actually looked surprised for a moment, then smiled a little, those blue-blue eyes focused totally and completely on Xander. "If I am a tiger, you, my friend, are a poisonous snake carefully encircling your prey, ever tightening your hold before you strike."

Xander leaned close. "Jean-Claude is already being consumed. And you, _you're_ next."

"Good."

 

###    
3\. Three

Off to the side, Xander and Asher were bonding, which was a seriously weird thing.

Jason didn't know how he had ended up being the unwitting witness to all the weird stuff in peoples' lives, but he kinda wished it would just stop. He seriously thought that maybe he had been permanently traumatized by some of the stuff he had seen, and not just the blood and guts parts either.

He knew he was being seriously warped when he actually thought something Xander did was "cute" or "romantic."

When a guy that happily talked about ripping people apart became oddly endearing, well, Jason figured it was maybe time he took a little step back.

Xander was one scary motherfucker even when he was being all cheerful and pleasant. Maybe _especially_ when he was being all cheerful and pleasant.

There was just something about Xander that could fool you into thinking he was just a normal guy. You started ignoring the air of aggression that hung around him like a dark cloud. You made excuses for some of the horrifying things he said. You allowed yourself to be drawn in by his charming smile, his sometimes goofy sense of humor, and the way he could look at you like you were the most important person in the world. Then all of a sudden he would be all "grr" and that monster face would make an appearance and he would be a lot less pretty or nice.

It was like there were two people in Xander, and one of them was a lot better at hiding the scary.

As the _pomme de sang_ of Jean-Claude, Jason was actually kind of glad Jean-Claude didn't let Xander Feed on anyone. Those jagged teeth didn't look like they would feel good and the scars they left would probably be terrible.

Either Jean-Claude or Asher would Feed Xander from their own pearlescent flesh. Jason had been a witness to the happenings in the vampires' shared bed.

Lying sated and limp in the tangle of sheets, he had watched as first Jean-Claude, then Asher had Fed Xander. There had been something strangely erotic about the thought of the blood Jean-Claude had taken from him being Fed to Xander. But the scene he had watched take place...

Xander's face in that ridged and twisted monster mask, blood coating his lips and those jagged teeth. A look of unabashed ecstasy on Jean-Claude's face even as his mouth trembled slightly in unavoidable pain. That perfect line of throat looking _gnawed_ upon and raw, a gaping maw lined with tendons and red-red flesh. Blood spattered and dripped everywhere, but none of the vampires cared and the monster in Jason's flesh was made hungry.

  
It kind of scared Jason a little that Jean-Claude didn't trust Xander enough to let him Feed directly from humans or lycanthropes. It made him wonder how shaky Xander's control really was and what would happen if he lost it. Only vampires were safe from his bite because if the worst happened they could fight him off.

Xander really was a scary guy. A self-proclaimed soulless vampire that seemed to not even have the most basic morals or sense of right and wrong. And he had Jean-Claude and Asher wrapped around his finger, which would have been bad enough, but they were the Master of the City and his Lieutenant, the most powerful vamps in the city.

In one fell swoop, Xander had claimed the backing of the city's entire vampire population. And even with Anita flipping out completely, Richard, Rafael, and most of the other shifter leaders were holding to the alliance they had made with Jean-Claude, so no one sane would dare make a move against Xander.

And that thing with Narcissus... It was just weird, that's all Jason knew.

Ten minutes alone with Xander, and suddenly the entire werehyena population of St. Louis was in Xander's pocket and Narcissus was practically crawling on his belly in front of him. Xander refused to explain and Jean-Claude had ceased to ask, but Jason really had to wonder what had gone on and if everyone should worry.

There was just something about Xander, a sucking charm that no one could escape no matter how hard they tried.

Even with the voice in the back of his head telling him to run away just as fast as he could, Jason could feel himself being inexorably drawn into Xander's orbit. It made him think he would lose himself forever in those dark eyes, and maybe when it happened he wouldn't even have it in him to mind anymore. Xander would own him completely and it frightened him that the thought didn't scare him more.

Jason could only be relieved that he had never felt the full force of Xander's attention on him because he didn't know if he would be able to hold himself together.

The lack of control issue was one of the reasons so many people had turned their backs on Anita. Sure, she cleaned up good and lots of people would have happily done her of their own free will, but the _aurdeur_ took that away. Being with Anita now was a little too much like rape, no control over the situation and no ability to say "No" until everything was all over and you were picking your soiled clothes up off the floor.

It had gotten to the point that a lot of the shifter pack leaders refused to be in the same room as Anita. They would send in their representatives or video conference, but they would not personally meet with her.

Anita Blake's complete lack of self-control was becoming a big part of her reputation. Either she was waving her gun around, or she was fucking anyone unlucky enough to get too close.

Jason remembered a time when all he had felt for her was respect. But that was before the night he had found himself being mindlessly fucked in every orifice in a mass orgy with a bunch of people he didn't know and even now couldn't name. Just this faceless mass of clawing, ripping and biting flesh.

He knew he wasn't the most moral of people, but he had woken up feeling dirty. Because the sex hadn't been _his_ choice and he really hadn't wanted it. And really, he couldn't even remember most of what had happened except that he was coated in all kinds of bodily fluids and even with his lycanthrope healing, he _ached_.

Anita hadn't even apologized or even had it in her to be ashamed. Her lack of control over the _aurdeur_ had basically led to the rape of everyone in that room, but since she got off she didn't even care.

Jason was just glad he hadn't been one of the previously normal humans in that room. Everyone had basically been contaminated by a variety of shifter types. And nobody had been wearing condoms, which had led to Cherry's brief pregnancy and her painful decision to have an abortion. She still wasn't completely over it either.

Even with how afraid he was of Xander, Jason would take him over Anita any day. At least he was honest in his complete lack of soul. Anita still believed that in the end she would somehow do the "right thing" and it would outweigh whatever terrible things she had to do to get there.

He remembered a time when he had heard Anita deriding Jean-Claude's Machiavellian ways. Yet here she was, basically living the ideal of "the end justifies the means."

Sometimes Jason wondered how Anita ever could have fallen so far. Then he had to wonder about himself.

 

###    
4\. Four

Being rescued by Jean-Claude always made her feel as if she was going to owe him in the future... and he wouldn't hesitate to collect.

From the confines of a jail cell to the plush confines of Jean-Claude's personal limo; it was kind of a sensory shock. Though sitting across from Jean-Claude, Xander, and Asher made it a somewhat unpleasant shift.

Xander smugly sat between the two other vampires like the king of the mountain... or the queen on the throne.

Some treacherous part of her kept insisting that that was her spot. She should have been the one snugged between Jean-Claude and Asher. She shouldn't have the rank aroma of old sweat and human misery permeating through her clothes to her skin.

 _What happened to my life?_ she thought, but there were no sudden and miraculous answers forthcoming.

All she had wanted was to stop being such a sociopath, but somehow she had managed to make her life even more unhappy.

Looking back at her time with Jean-Claude and Asher, she honestly couldn't say she hadn't been happy. It was just that she had been raised to believe that what she was doing was wrong, and the fact that none of it really bothered her had made her take a step back and consider.

In recent years she had killed so many people she couldn't even count them anymore. Sure, most of them were trying to kill either her or someone under her protection, but still... they were still dead and she had been the one to pull the trigger or wield the knife.

She seriously had to wonder if she still had a soul. And she hated the relief she felt over the fact that Jean-Claude's Marks meant she probably wasn't going to die anytime soon... not naturally anyway. She was just relieved that she wouldn't be feeling the flames of hell for awhile yet to come.

"Why are you so quiet? What, you don't want to talk about your time in the poke?" Xander laughed softly. "Did you at least get any good prison sex? Were you the butch... or the bitch?"

She glared at Xander, snuggling there against Jean-Claude's side, practically rubbing her face in what she had so impulsively given up.

It was funny. Just a few years before she had wanted more than anything for Jean-Claude to turn his attentions to someone else and leave her alone. And now that he had... some part of her still couldn't believe it.

Jean-Claude had wormed his way under her skin to the point where she had become certain that no matter what she did, he would always be there. Only now he wasn't, and there was no one to blame but herself.

Even with all of his power and strength, the fact that he had wanted her enough to completely rearrange his whole lie and to give up some of his dignity meant that she had lost some of her respect for him. She had actually begun to look down on him a bit because he would take so much of her shit and not raise a single objection.

If anyone had treated her the way she had Jean-Claude... she would have been more than pissed. But he had just kept taking it, shrugging off her rudeness as inconsequential, and not letting any of the hurtful things she called him breach his skin.

The excuse she had given for the way she treated him was that he was a monster. She had told herself he didn't feel things as deeply as a normal man.

So why did she want to scream when he found someone else to be with?

She could remember the pain in his eyes when she broke up with him and it was honest and real.

Maybe that was what bothered her so much, that in the act of throwing him away she saw the humanity he had tried so hard to hide. Whatever it was, he had moved on and she _hated_ it.

The fact that Xander was so different from her--and not just in his maleness--upset her too. Jean-Claude hadn't tried to find someone like her in appearance or personality. He had found someone so completely new that she didn't even have the chance to fool herself into believing his feelings for Xander were just transference of his feelings for her.

Jean-Claude had moved on... and he'd taken Asher with him.

"Ah, Anita, what are we to do with you?"

Looking at her former lover, she felt a little lost without the murmur of his emotions at the back of her mind. He had completely closed her out and he wasn't letting her back in.

Even though she had been the one to end things between them, she still felt a painful ache in the vicinity of her heart whenever she looked into Jean-Claude's too-beautiful face.

It was pretty much a given that whenever a relationship ended, there was always someone left feeling regretful. It just so happened that this time the one left feeling at a loss was her.

"So what happened?" Xander asked, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Why'd you kill that kid--did she look at you in a threatening way?"

"I didn't kill that girl!" Anita yelled, feeling her blood-pressure sky-rocked upward. "Whatever I shot, it wasn't that girl. So I don't know how she ended up lying on the ground full of holes."

"You hallucinating, 'Nita? Were you chasing the White Rabbit?"

"No, I was not doing _drugs_ ," Anita snapped. "Whatever it was I fired at... it wasn't that girl."

"Then what could it have been, Anita? You murdered an innocent child. Your bullets were found in her body. It was only because of your close association with the police that and the tenseness of the situation that they let you out of jail. But if they decide you are guilty..." Jean-Claude shrugged, "you could be sent to prison for a very long time."

"Maybe it was a demon."

Anita turned to look at Xander. "It couldn't have been a demon. I didn't feel that overwhelming sense of evil. Besides, they need to be summoned, and that takes quite a bit of power. Power I haven't felt in the last few days."

"There are other kinds of demons," Xander said. "They can summon themselves and pretty much do whatever they want. And flimsy prayers... they make them giggle."

"What do you think you know?" she demanded.

Xander's expression went flat and there was a frightening blankness to his eyes. "I've seen things you can't even imagine. Creatures that make even me seem less bloodthirsty. And they do whatever they want whenever they want and mortals are their playthings."

Anita wanted to laugh at him, to loudly scoff at his words. But the look in his eyes... it sent a chill through her.

"How come I've never heard of these creatures?" Anita asked.

One side of Xander's mouth quirked upward in a definite not-smile. "You don't know everything, Anita. There are still so many things you have never seen before. So many horrors you have yet to experience. You think you're tough... but it's a never ending tide of evil, Anita, and it will roll right over you. Just grind you into dust and keep on going to devour the world.

"Who were you before you were turned?" Anita asked. "What kind of man were you?"

"I wasn't a man," Xander said, and a mad fire seemed to light in his eyes. "I was just a boy. And when the Master rose to claim his place in the world... he saw me and even before we met I was his. And my sisters--my Willow--were his too because I was not strong enough to hold them from him. But in the end..." His smile was an evil thing. She could almost feel worms crawling across her skin. "We showed him that we were not pets to be leashed. We were wild and untamed and I think even he began to fear us."

 

###    
5\. Five

  
 _Dammit, dammit, dammit_ , he thought.

He had told her too much, revealed too many secrets. But he hadn't been able to help himself.

Like a bad movie villain, he always felt the need to reveal his nefarious plans.

It was just that he liked to have his brilliance acknowledged and admired by other people. He _wanted_ them to look at him and realize that his reputation as a brutal enforcer of the Master's will wasn't an honorary one, but something he'd earned.

He wanted people to be afraid of him.

Leaning against Asher's side, he wondered how Jean-Claude was going to react.

There were some things he had purposely held back and Jean-Claude had accepted that. But here he was right now, spilling secrets left and right.

Jean-Claude surprised him by pressing a kiss against his forehead and saying, "When you are ready to speak of it, I will be ready to listen."

That was one of the things that still threw Xander about this new world. The vampires seemed more caring than some of the humans he ha met, and that just seemed wrong. Also, it totally made him feel a bit self-conscious about his complete lack of a soul. Like that was somehow dirty or something.

"Come on, Jean-Claude, tell me you're not just going to leave it like that," Anita said. " _I_ know you're smarter than to not demand some answers after hearing about this 'Master' of his."

Jean-Claude's lips compressed into a thin line. "Xander's previous life is not of your concern. If there is something he wishes to tell me, then he will tell me."

Xander was tempted to stick his tongue out at her and yell "So there!" but he managed to refrain

"Fine, whatever," Anita growled, "but I want to know more about these so-called 'demons.'"

Xander shrugged. "What's there to say about them? They're demons. They feed off of misery, despair, and the entrails of humanity. Some are out for power and the end of the world. Others are just here for a good time. And if one of them made you shoot that girl... Well, what are you going to do about it?"

"If, and I say if, there are demons wandering around the city, well, something's gonna have to be done about them."

"And you're just the _guy_ to handle the situation, huh?" Xander smirked.

There was just something so tasty about pissing Anita off. She was always just so uptight that she put his teeth on edge, so every time he got her screaming and frothing like a lunatic he felt like he had won some kind of victory. And her hate for him... It was sweet like candy. He could eat it everyday and not get full.

"If something supernatural happens in this town, _I'm_ the one they call," Anita said firmly.

Xander laughed. "I love how you call us _super_ natural. Because even though you mean it like we're unnatural and weird... The truth is we really are super. Like Superman, super. And the humans... They're just food."

He loved the way her nostrils flared as she growled her outrage. She just got so angry over even the most simplest of truths. But then, in her heart of hearts, she still thought of herself as being human and of the monsters as being somehow less than her. As though she was so great, with her still mortal flesh rotting around her like a bony prison.

"But don't feel bad, Anita," he said, letting his lips draw back from a fierce not-smile, "you're super too."

Her eyes went wide and her skin flushed with outrage. He could practically _feel_ her quivering desire to draw her gun and blast some holes through him. But the police had confiscated her weapons and deigned not to give them back. And her self-perceived weakness only made her more enraged.

Xander couldn't help the laughter that came bubbling up out of his throat. "You're too easy, Anita. Easy like Sunday morning. It's no wonder why all the monsters want to play with you. I bet you taste like cotton candy, all melty sugar."

"Shut up," she ordered, her voice cracking almost imperceptibly.

He loved how upset she got over such little things. She was killing herself in her attempt not to be a monster. But no matter how hard she tried, the more "human" she acted, the more monstrous she seemed. It wouldn't e too much longer before she was more of a monster than the monsters themselves.

"Don't be so mean," he said. "I just might decide not to help you. Then maybe you can make yourself a 'special' friend in prison."

"I don't need your help," she growled, "and I don't want it."

"Now who are you trying to fool?" he asked. "You've never dealt with these kinds of demons before. You're going to need my help."

She glared at him and opened her mouth to say something--probably a scathing insult--but Jean-Claude interrupted. "Anita. You will accept the help Xander offers to keep you out of prison. And Xander," he glanced at Xander, "will behave himself for my sake if none other."

Xander grinned. "Anything for you, fangy-bear."

"You will not call me that again," Jean-Claude commanded.

"In public," Xander agreed.

Jean-Claude sighed heavily in exasperation, but there was an amused glint in his eyes.

It was funny how the vampires of this world were so totally about their images. Everything was about being perceived as strong and in control or homicidal and dangerous. They had souls, but they gave up a lot of their fire or something when they decided to be masters and big team players.

Xander had always liked the thought of having his cake and eating it too. Which was totally an idea he had gotten from Spike, who no matter the situation, was willing to have a good time.

Being one of the Master's most feared enforcers had its benefits, like being able to act like a complete dork on occasion and no one daring to say anything about it. Because no matter how good he was at playing human, he wasn't, and there really was no creature--supernatural or otherwise--that he wasn't perfectly willing to kill. And that granted him a freedom these vampires--all soul-having and legalized rights possessing--didn't even dream of.

No matter how heartlessly ruthless they were, the vampires of this world tried hard to play by the rules. For the most part, they all tried hard not to be the one to rock the boat and thus have their fellow vampires come after them. And, of course, there was also all of the vampire executioners and the bounty hunters and assassins out there.

Personally, Xander thought the vampires of this world were a bunch of pussies. All that power, and they were afraid of the creeping bloodbags.

Some days, lying between Jean-Claude and Asher's limp and unmoving bodies, he seriously had to wonder what he might have done if he didn't love Jean-Claude so much. It was sad and pathetic, but the moist emotions of his heart were the only thing keeping the streets of St. Louis from running with blood.

 

###    
6\. Six

The limo pulled up in front of the Circus of the Damned and they all climbed out, Xander twining his arm around Jason's waist.

The werewolf felt his skin creep at the contact while, strangely, a part of him was hungry for more. "What's the deal?" he asked.

"What, I can't be friends with you?" Xander asked. He blinked his eyes in doe-like innocence and pressed his free hand against his chest. "You've hurt me, Jason, really and truly and deeply. All I want is a friend... Someone to hang out with and do friend-stuff with. Why don't you like me, man? What did I ever do to you?"

Jason glared at Xander. "You're a scary motherfucker and I think you really want to kill me."

"Well, besides that, what have I ever done to you?" Xander asked, holding onto the innocence for a moment longer. Then he laughed and broke away to skip back to Asher's side. "Fine, fine. You're unfriended, Jason. Live out the rest of your life friend-free."

Jason sighed and focused on going through the door Dorian held open. Sometimes Xander was as weird as he was scary, but just as psychopathic.

Maybe it was how unexpected Xander was that made him so terrifying. His motivations were always a mystery, the only pattern the suddenness of his violence and how much damage he could cause in just a few seconds.

Sometimes Xander came across as just another guy and Jason could really almost find himself liking him. Then he did something completely freaking crazy and Jason remembered that he really wanted to live to forty if he could make it.

Why Jean-Claude found Xander so fascinating was kind of a mystery. Except that the attention Xander focused on him was completely different from what other people received and Jason could see Jean-Claude reacting as to a drug. Xander was his personal high.

They found themselves in Jean-Claude's office, where Xander immediately took over the leather couch, pulling Asher down next to him for a "subtle" cuddle/fondle.

"So, what are we going to do?" Xander asked. "We looking to take down some evil or something? Keep Anita out of the clink?"

" _You're_ not going to do anything," Anita growled. "You're going to stay out of my way and shut up."

Xander crossed his legs and leaned back, a petulant curve to his lips. "Well, aren't you just a charmer." A sly smile edged the pout out. "Maybe you'll get your arms and legs munched off and it'll make you much more amenable to my offer of help."

"Alexander." That was all Jean-Claude had to say, but it was enough.  
Xander slouched down and lay his head on Asher's chest, snuggling in. His right hand stroked up and down Asher's thigh, higher and higher with each stroke until the side of his hand was brushing against the obviousness of Asher's arousal. But he didn't say anything else to Anita, though his eyes burned into her as he showed her just what she had so carelessly thrown away in her futile attempt to be "normal."

Jason could practically feel the backwash of Anita's jealousy burning against the surface of his skin.

She may have been able to fool herself into thinking that she could move on with her life, but it was evident that she wasn't quite as successful as she played at. But it was too late for her to wallow in regret. The rest of the world had already moved on.

"How are you going to find out what made you kill the girl?" Jean-Claude asked, redirecting Anita's attention. "The police will not allow you in on the investigation and they will not give you any information. You are a suspect, non?"

"I have contacts other than the police," Anita said, then at Xander's doubtful look, "I do! If worse comes to worse, I can always call Edward and see if he knows about any situations like this."

"Ooh, Edward," Xander cooed. "Me likes him. He's fun to play with."

"You will leave him alone, will you not?" Jean-Claude said sternly. "I would be most upset if Monsieur Morte managed to kill you."

"Ah, you really do care," Xander said. "Don't worry. I can totally handle myself, and compared to some of the fuckers I've faced, Edward's just a little pussy cat. Especially once I neuter him."

"Whoa, man, that's a little too disturbing," Jason said, heading toward the door. "I'm just gonna go, all right? You guys get down to the nitty gritty and call me if you need me. Though I think maybe I'll like it better if you _don't_ call me, 'cause ew."

"Don't know why, but that sounded totally familiar," Xander said, his brow crinkling for a moment in thought before it all smoothed away.

Jason waved a hand. "Whatever."

He made his grand exit in the hopes that he wouldn't be called on to face down any kind of terrifying evil in the not-too-distant future.

  
* * *

Sometimes Xander thought that maybe he was having a little too much fun with the evil. But that kind of came part and parcel with the whole non-souledness. There were very few things he wasn't willing to do just for the cool thrill of it.

Back in the day, when he was the Master's bitch, he had done things his mortal self had never even dreamed of even in his worst nightmares. He had killed and tortured people the world around and it had been the most beautiful thing he had ever felt... and he had never wanted to let it go.

Now here he was in this bright new world playing the tame monster. He hadn't killed anyone in months and it was actually rather disturbing... 'cause even though a part of him wanted him to go out on a rampage, he had somehow managed to find the strength to hold himself back from the destructive evil.

Maybe he was finally beginning to grow up?

Sure, he was trapped in a teenage body forever, but that didn't mean he had to stay a kid, did it? Maybe, without his even noticing it, he had been maturing somehow. Growing into his role as a functioning semi-adult vampire. Weird.

Xander shook his head to clear his thoughts and snuggled closer against Asher. He really didn't want to think anymore, and he knew that Asher would keep him from anything approaching rational thought.

"Why don't you cut that out?" Anita snapped angrily.

He didn't even bother to look at her, just let a large grin spread across his face as he slid across the intervening space to straddle Asher's lap. He pressed himself close against the other vampire, pressing a few kisses against what had once been the scarred half of his face before segueing into languid licks of the tongue. He loved to imagine rough, broken skin beneath him, it made him think of all the fun times he had had with Willow and whatever victim the Master had told them to punish. Burned flesh and singed hair, holy water acid burns and pain tears, they were memories he never wanted to let go. The sounds of screams still rang in his ears like lovely music.

Asher made a purring, whining sound deep in his throat when Xander ground down hard against him. And when Xander giggled and bit him hard on the neck... it was all over.

"Aw, I thought being all old and all would make you last longer," Xander teased, giving Asher a nibbling kiss on the lips.

"You are like a drug burning through my veins," Asher panted, his hair hanging around his face as he tried to regain control of himself.

"Maybe someday I'll burn you all up," Xander said, not really teasing at all. He had always loved the beautiful flick and burn of fire. Sometimes, he dreamed of walking out into the sunlight just to see himself burn.

"Oh gross," Anita complained.

Xander looked at her over his shoulder. "Don't lie, Anita, I know you get up to some crazy shit in that house of yours. You like to play it all prudish when it comes to other people having any fun, but when it's you... it's a no holds barred triple-X sex extravaganza. So don't try and judge me unless you want me to judge you."

Anita's mouth closed with a snap, but her eyes burned with a silent rage. Finally, "It's because of the _Aurdeur_. It makes..."

Xander laughed out loud. "Sure, blame it all on the metaphysical bullshit. It's not like you were a completely repressed anti-intimacy freak with a massive chip on your shoulder or anything. I mean, you lost your mother at a young age, you have mondo-father issues, you are in turns resentful and repulsed by your stepmother, and lets not even get into the unvoiced jealousies you have about your stepbrother and the fact that he has two _loving_ parents that dote on him. Geez, Anita, you have no emotional baggage whatsoever. Before you fell into the _darkness_ and were _devoured_ by the creepy world, well, you were the most well-rounded person anyone could ever meet." He blinked at her.

"Why you..." she lunged at him with her fingers bent like claws. She didn't even go for her gun, which he thought was pretty funny.

He didn't even move, just watched as Jean-Claude caught her by the back of her shirt and jerked her backward. "Anita, that is enough. I have let you get away with a lot of things, but I will not allow you to attack Xander in my home. Perhaps you should leave now and we will discuss the situation more later."

She growled, her eyes burning at Xander. She shook Jean-Claude's hand off. "Fine, whatever. I'll see _you_ later. Don't bring him," she jerked a thumb at Xander before storming out of the room.

Xander had to bury his face in Asher's neck to try and maintain his control, but still, his maniacal laughter rang against the walls.

"Oh, Xander," Jean-Claude sighed, "what are we going to do with you?"

 

###    
7\. Seven

It had been a long time since someone had looked so far into her and pulled out so much ugly truth. It made her hate him even more.

Sure, Xander was a self-proclaimed soulless monster, but he had somehow managed to make Jean-Claude seem more human and real by comparison. And sure, she had told herself that she wasn't going to give into any regrets, but a part of her wanted to fall on her knees and beg Jean-Claude and Asher to forgive her, to take her back and heal the aching hole inside her where their love had burned like a flame.

But she was too strong to ever bow down to anyone, not even when she was really sorry. She simply could not force herself to go crawling back to Jean-Claude no matter how much she still loved him and wanted him to forgive her.

So it was probably a good thing that he wouldn't want her back anyway, right? He and Asher had moved on, had found someone that made them happier than she ever had or could. Someone that looked at them and didn't automatically judge them as monsters, but accepted them wholly and completely no matter what kind of depravities they wanted to give themselves over to.

They had found someone that they loved more that her. And oh how it hurt...

The sound of Xander's laughter rang through her ears, chasing her out of the building. Mocking her for being stupid enough to think that she didn't need anyone else, that she could completely rearrange her life and not regret it even a little bit.

For awhile there, before she had thrown it away as useless garbage, she had actually been happy. Now she wasn't.

* * *

  
After Jean-Claude had forced them back to his bedroom and they'd had a strenuous round of sex, Xander was feeling much more in the mood for demon hunting. Sex and violence, they made the world go round.

They also gave him a great big happy.

"Great, now that Anita's gone," Xander said, folding his arms under his head, "let's get down to business."

"You are a very bad man, aren't you Xander?" Jean-Claude said, a smirk tugging his lips.

Xander blew him a kiss. "That's why you like me so much. So, what do you want to do? Should we handle the problem ourselves or let Anita shoot a bunch of stuff, get herself into bigger trouble, and just generally make a gigantic dramatic ass of herself?"

Jean-Claude made a moue at him. "You really must not antagonize her so. She is hard enough to control without you daring her to attempt to kill you."

"But she's just so easy," Xander said. "And I've always liked living dangerously."

"Sometimes I truly have to believe that you have no soul," Asher said, reaching out to stroke a hand down Xander's side. "You certainly boast about it enough."

"Oh, I really don't have a soul," Xander said. "It's a whole thing from where I come from. You get Turned and your soul gives you the big bye-bye and that's that. Then the fun starts... And the blood and mayhem." He smiled sweetly.

Jean-Claude reached out to run a hand down Xander's side. "I do not know what it is about you, mon amour, but..."

Xander shrugged. "Lots of people say that. Anyways, how do you wanna handle the 'keep Anita out of jail' situation? A round of demon hunting?"

"We are not even sure that it is a demon," Asher said.

Xander snorted. "Oh, it's a demon all right. I could practically smell the sulfur and the demonic aura hanging around Anita. Someone put the whammy on her, which made her unleash the bullets like a dummy."

"What kind of demon could it be?" Jean-Claude asked.

"Who cares?" Xander said. "There's so many kinds of demons out there that there's no way to keep 'em all straight in your head. All you gotta know is that decapitation is usually the best bet... decapitation or fire. Fun, fun."

"Yes, fun," Asher said, carefully not running his hands across the perfectly smooth skin of the left side of his face that had even just recently been marred by the liquid burn of holy water scars. But he was totally over that. Decades of loss and misery had been overcome by the corrective surgery that had given him back the appearance of vampire perfection. It wasn't as though he had any internal scars or anything. Everything was perfect in his little world.

Even without a soul, Xander could smell the emotional turmoil ripping through Asher. A part of him--the nasty demon part--reveled in the torment he could feel going through his lover. But the remnants of humanity that occasionally reared a deformed mutant head had him slipping across the sheets to lay across Asher's chest.

"It's all right," he whispered in Asher's ear. "You've got me and you've got Jean-Claude and I'm proud to say that I will happily rip the heart out of anything that even thinks about bothering you, 'cause you belong to me now."

"That's an amazingly sweet sentiment coming from you," Asher said, and Xander ignored the single tear that trickled from his blue-blue eye.

Jean-Claude crept up behind Xander to wrap his arms tight around his back and loom over his shoulder, gazing down at Asher with passion burning eyes. "And you wondered what I could ever possibly see in such a monstrous boy."

"Monstrously lovely," Asher said, a smile bowing his lips. "He makes it acceptable for us to be ourselves with no pretending."

"Come on," Xander said, "humanity's way overrated. I'd rather have a good time than worry about some loser's version of morality." He began gyrating between their two sandwiching bodies. " _All I wanna do is have some fun, I got a feeling I'm not the only one. All I wanna do is have some fun until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard..._ "

The sound of his laughter rang through the room, a chilling sound that reverberated with the inhuman cackle of a hyena scenting the weakness in a kill.

 

###    
8\. Eight

"I'm never letting you dress me ever again."

Jason felt his lips twitch and he forced himself not to turn his head and look at Xander. He'd already seen the outfit and he didn't want to die.

After all of Jean-Claude's not-quite begging, Xander had finally given in and let the older vampire dress him. Too bad he hadn't put any limits on what he was and wasn't willing to wear, because Jean-Claude had gone the whole nine-yards with him, probably because he had known that this was his only chance to get Xander to willingly wear clothes he picked.

The outfit consisted of gunmetal gray leather "pants" that were more like leather straps than anything else, the largest piece covering his groin area while leaving a large portion of his ass bare. The top was a painted on sheer red shirt that had had the back cut out to show off Xander's amazingly detailed black tattooed angel wings that started between his shoulder blades and went all the way down to his buttocks.

It seemed that Jean-Claude had been enamored of the angel wings for some time, because given the chance to dress Xander, he hadn't even hesitated before bringing out the cosmetics. In all, the look was like something out of a glossy magazine, but it was very not-Xander.

"At least the boots are normal," Jason offered, unable to help himself, then winced, waiting for the beat down.

Xander just snorted. "Of course the boots are normal. They're mine. Jean-Claude knows better than to mess with my footwear when I'm gonna be unleashing a beat down on someone in the near future."

"Come, mon amour, you look lovely," Jean-Claude said, sliding his arm through Xander's.

"I don't want to look lovely," Xander grumbled. "I'm supposed to be dangerous and frightening, but from the look on Jason's face when I came out... I bet I look like a girl."

"Non," Jean-Claude said, "you are definitely not feminine looking. You are dangerous and beautiful and everything I always knew you to be."

Xander glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Really?"

"Really."

Xander turned his head to look at Asher. "Well? Am I dangerous looking, or should I be in a bordello somewhere being reamed by a guy named Charlie?"

Asher cocked his head. "You are a vision."

"Hmph." Xander pouted, his glossy metallic-hued lips even fuller than usual. "Whatever."

Jason gave a sigh of relief. He wasn't up to another round of the terrifying Xander-losing-his-mind show. Whenever Xander lost it, Jason couldn't be sure the guy wasn't going to choose him as a victim and he would rather be alive than in pieces spread around on the ground.

How someone that pretty could be that evil... even after years of dealing with inhumanly good-looking vampires, it still boggled the mind.

"I'm gonna go get the car," he said, then squirreled it out of there.

*____________________*____________________*

The first thing out of Anita's mouth when she slid into the back of the limo was, "What the hell happened to you? You look like the results of a cosmetologist's final exam." Which led to Xander's first blow up of the night.

After the drama died down a little and Xander and Anita had been dragged back to their respective corners, Jean-Claude began outlining the plan.

"Alexander believes that a demon was the reason why Anita shot the girl last night. So Richard, you will use your wolves to scent out whether the demon is still there or where it has gone. Asher, you and Damian will lead the attack if and when we find the demon. Anita... you will stay out of things as much as possible."

She opened her mouth to start her objections, but Xander loudly snorted. "Dude, are you retarded, or what? The police are on your case and you're going to jump right in the middle of a shootout situation? Come on, they've probably got all your weapons on file so they'd be able to trace any bullets right to you and your ass would be right back in jail even if we bring this thing down, 'cause come on. You're on like police probation. You're not supposed to be even close to any crime scenes. So take a step back and stop trying to be the hero before you get yourself dead."

"Like you even care," she snarked.

"You're right," he said, "I don't care. If you wanna risk your life and your future freedom being an idiot, than that's up to you. But with the Marks tying you to Jean-Claude... well, you suddenly don't have the freedom to be as much of an idiot as you wanna be, get it? Besides, you're also risking Richard's life, and even though he's kind of a stick, he's not all that bad."

"Gee, thanks," Richard said, crossing his arms.

Xander flashed him a devilish grin. "You're welcome."

Richard couldn't help his little snort of laughter. Xander was a self-proclaimed soulless monster and he certainly acted the part most of the time, but he was also honest and had a real sense of humor, even if it was kind of sick.

After years of dealing with the darker sides of monster life, Richard had come to appreciate honesty in the people he dealt with. It was just such a damn rare commodity these days that he had come to see it as one of those little things he'd thought lost and gone forever along with the bulk of his humanity.

Glancing at Anita, he once again wondered what he had seen in her.

Because of her, he had gambled and lost the last of his innocence and piece of mind. He'd killed his first person because of her, and for awhile there, he'd also probably lost his sanity for awhile. And why? Because they were supposedly in love? Because they were going to get married and live happily ever after in some storybook fairy tale of a version of St. Louis?

Thinking back, he was actually a little sickened by his naivety and all the trouble it probably would have caused him and the people that depended on him. So in a way he could kind of thank Anita for waking him up to reality, though he wished it hadn't been so painful or lasting a lesson.

She was pretty, with that cloud of dark hair and that moon pale skin, but she certainly wasn't the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and in a way that had been what had drawn him to her in the first place. She had been so human and flawed that he had deluded himself into thinking that she would never let herself be swallowed into the darker portions of his world and that if he clung to her tight enough maybe she would pull him out of the hole he had let himself be sucked into.

Instead she had drawn him deeper into the darkness, had pulled him so far down that he didn't think he was ever going to find normal ever again. He couldn't even see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore and somewhere way down deep, it really hurt.

Anita had basically forced him to come to terms with his "monster." But in doing so he had lost his humanity and that was something she just seemed incapable of understanding.

He remembered the days when he could go to dinner with his family and it felt like he was being embraced by their love and welcome, coming back to where he belonged, just one more link in the never ending chain of his family and their love. But now he felt like a stranger whenever he was around them, some changeling that had taken the place of the real Richard Zeeman.

She had made him accept his monster, but now there were some days when he felt as though that was all there was. The monster, the beast, the Alpha and the burning rage that sometimes had him losing his mind and roaring at the moon and the fates and anything else he came across for ruining his life completely.

A cool hand on his arm jerked him out of his dark thoughts. He turned his head to find Xander looking at him.

"You good?" Xander asked, the devilish light almost entirely absent from his eyes for once. In that moment, he could have been just a normal boy, maybe even one of Richard's students.

"Yeah," Richard said, ignoring the sudden ache in his chest. It was hard to believe, but Xander had once been someone's son, someone's best friend. He had once been a normal boy with a normal life and a future that he was never going to see. "Yeah, I'm good."

He may have been a werewolf and a monster, but at least he had the comfort of knowing that things could always have been worse. At least he had had the chance to grow up.

 

###    
9\. Nine

"This is the place?" Xander scratched the back of his head. "What a shit hole."

"Hey, watch the language," Anita snapped.

Xander just gave her a sideways look, which actually got her to shift uncomfortably. As though Ms. Bad-Attitude herself could honestly tell him to watch his language. "What's the deal, 'Nita, it's not like there's any little kids around or anything. What, you think this is suddenly a PG show or something?"

"Alexander, now is not the time for your humor," Jean-Claude said. "And Anita... you will stay with us and you will not cause any trouble."

"Uh oh, he's using his Master of the City voice," Xander whispered, "we'd all better watch out. He might decide to bring out the whips and chains."

"That's more than I needed to know about your sex life," Jason quipped, then cringed away from the dark look Jean-Claude shot him. "Sorry Mas... Jean-Claude. I'm just... I'm gonna go stand over here, yeah? Yeah."

Watching the werewolf scuttle away with his proverbial tail between his legs, Xander couldn't help snickering. "And people wonder what I see in you other than your phenomenal good looks."

"Alexander."

Xander shot him a naughty grin. "Come on, Jeanie, lighten up a little and come outta your bottle." He could feel that burning flame in his veins that meant he was about to totally nut out and it was the greatest thing ever. Violence and mayhem were waving at him from over the horizon and there was nothing that was going to stop him now. "We're about to get down and dirty with the evil. Scuffling around with the darkness. Ripping something to shreds just to see it bleed. It's fun-fun time in Xanderland."

"I don't think I really want to see Xanderland," Richard said, before sending Jamil off with a couple of already changed werewolves to scope out the area outside the ramshackle hut of a house.

"Everybody loves Xanderland," Xander said, smirking. "It's got the best rides and there's always a new game to play. Plus, naked fun."

Richard just looked at him for a long moment, then a faint smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. "You're an asshole, you know that? But at least you don't play at being anything other than what you are."

Xander let the confusion wash over him for a second, then shrugged. "Whatever, let's get to the action. The build up is boring me now."

As though responding to his words, there was a loud CRASH from behind the house, then a figure came running around the corner barely ahead of the chasing werewolves.

"Help me, help me, oh god, they're gonna kill me, help me!"

"Stop them, Richard, that's a little girl!" Anita yelled, drawing her gun and aiming it at the wolves, the weapon wavering as she tried to decide which one to shoot first.

"NO!" Richard knocked her arm down. "I don't know what that is... but that doesn't smell human." His nostrils flared then curled in disgust as he drew the scent of the supposed child in. "Whatever that is... it smells dark. Like evil given flesh."

"Thanks for the weak ass poetry," Xander said, stepping forward, "but it's playtime now."

Sidestepping Jean-Claude's reaching hand, he ran right at the creature, stopping just short of running into "her."

The girl came to a panting stop and looked at him out of pleading brown eyes. "Help me, oh god, they're gonna kill me. I'm so scared. Where's my mom and dad?"

"I don't know, sweetie," he purred, "where are your mom and dad?"

She was a pretty looking ten year old with light brown hair pulled back in two ponytails. She was wearing a generic looking blue tee-shirt and jeans. She could have been any kid anywhere, sweet and innocent and desperate to be saved from the monsters.

"I don't... I don't know where they are. I woke up and then the wolves came and..." She shrieked when a dark gray werewolf lunged at her with snapping jaws. She scrambled out of the way and ducked behind Xander, using him as a shield.

"All right, puppies, it's downtime now," he said, waving them back. "Let's let Uncle Xander handle the situation, all right."

The two wolves backed off, but not too far. Their eyes burned with an eerie human intelligence and their lips were drawn back from snarling teeth. They were actually rather pretty under the light of the moon. It almost made him want a dog of his own.

He grinned and turned to look at the girl. "So, how'd you get here?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

"Come on, you can tell me. Was it an interdimensional portal? You got a doorway set up around here somewhere? You sneaking in for the quick feed, or have you totally immigrated to this wonderfully untouched world here?"

She backed away from him with a frightened look. "Please, mister, I don't know what you're talking about. You're scaring me and..."

"Oh, I haven't even started to scare you yet," he said, his voice low and seductive. He could feel that warm pooling in his belly that meant he was about to have a true and happy moment.

He cruised around her like a shark in ever closer circles until he could reach out a hand and brush it gently across the soft skin at the back of her neck. "Come on, baby, why don't you bring out your real face, huh? I haven't had a good fight since I came here. I mean, I don't care if I gotta kill you wearing the face of a kid, but I think it would be more of a thrill if you looked like how we both know you do."

"What... what do you..." Looking at him, the girl suddenly shook her head and flashed a bright smile. "You totally got me, huh? I guess this form didn't fool you at all, did it?"

"Nope. So why don't you let the real you come out and play?"

"Are you really sure you wanna see it, mister?" she asked in a teasing voice. "There's lots of people that run away screaming before things even start getting interesting."

"Come on, I've seen it all before," Xander said. "This close to you, I can even tell what species you are." He drew in a deep whiff of her scent. "My Willow used to play around with the Dark Arts and drew one of your kind in once. Onwerkelijk Kind, right? An unreal child, like Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, or the Princess In the Tower?"

She laughed and suddenly her skin seemed to melt away and something much larger and uglier poured forth.

Xander felt a maniacal grin stretching his face. "Rock on!"

 

###    
10\. Ten

Jason fought the sudden urge to jump in the car and drive off as fast as he could. Not because he got over his total freaked-outedness, but because he rather thought Jean-Claude would kill him if he ran off with the car.

What had started out as a cute kid had become a thing of nightmares. It was about ten feet tall and looked slimy and a bit like Chet Donnelley after he'd been turned into a pile of shit on the original Weird Science movie. It made Jason's skin creep to look at it and more than anything he didn't want it to touch him.

"Well, aren't you just the prettiest girl at the party," Xander cooed, then giggled, a strange, high-pitched sound that grated on the nerves.

The demon opened its slavering mouth and ROARED, a sound that had Jason covering his ears to block it out. It lunged toward Xander, moving fast enough to be nothing but a blur even in his lycanthropic vision, all gnashing teeth and huge clawed hands ready to rip and tear.

But Xander was already there, just kind of appearing up under the creature's body, his eyes glowing an eerie green and his face twisted in that monster mask it took on when he Fed. "All right!" Xander yelled, then began to laugh, a strange whooping, inhuman kind of laugh that caused a primal shiver down the spine of everyone that heard it.

Xander punched the demon hard in the chest with a slapping of meat sound, then he was a blur of frenetic energy, punching and tearing, ripping through the demon with crazy strength.

"You know, usually I would like a blade for something like this, but since this is the first real fun I've had since I've come here... I'm gonna enjoy doing this with my bare hands." With that, Xander began digging his fingers into the demon, tearing off chunks of flesh that he dropped carelessly to the wayside.

It was the most uneven fight Jason had ever seen. The demon, furiously roaring and twisting and turning gouged huge furrows out of the ground with its every footstep. It was strong and fierce and should have been the clear victor of the fight, but Xander was a monster, that was the only explanation. He ripped through the demon as though it was a normal human, plunging his hands and arms deep into its flesh to rip out gobbets until he hit the final prize and, his face twisting with effort as he grunted hard, pulled its black-black heart clear out of its chest to crush between his palms right in front of it.

The demon gave a final wheezing cry, then collapsed with a ground-shaking thud, still shivering but already dead.

"Well, that was fun," Xander said, dropping the heart with a splattering plop on the ground. "I was hoping it would put up more of a fight, though. Still, beggars can't be choosers, right?"

He turned and Jason flinched. His eyes blazed with green fire, his lips drawn back in a fierce grin. His chest still heaved with the last of his physical effort, but it was obvious that he could have gone another ten rounds or more and not even been ready to stop. His hands were curled at his sides, dripping with dark blood that hissed and sizzled as it struck the ground.

Xander looked at them all, taking in their horrified expressions, then blinked hard. When he opened his eyes, they were that warm dark chocolate again, though that only made it worse. Those all-too human orbs in that snarling monster face, his forehead ridged and his teeth jagged and razor sharp.

"It looks like we missed all the fun," a smooth as ice voice suddenly said.

"Ah, I knew you were there the minute you showed up," Xander said. "Why don't you come out and say hello... Narcissus, honey?"

Narcissus came out from beneath the shadows with that smooth gliding walk of his. He was followed by four hulking werehyenas and Bacchus trailed at his shoulder like he was on an invisible leash.

Xander wiped his gory hands off on the handkerchief Narcissus tossed him and rolled his shoulders with a cracking of tension. His face had smoothed back into its normal boy-next-door handsomeness, the monster tucked away for later. "You're looking rather festive," he purred. "I love the dress. Bronze is totally your color."

Narcissus smiled brushed a hand over his sleeve. "Well, I remember you saying you have fond memories of bronze, so... I thought if we were coming to visit you I should at least do something to make you think of home."

"You're such an angel, Narcie. I don't know why so many people don't like you." Xander stepped away from demon corpse as though it wasn't there. "You're one of my favorite people here, you know? I totally wanna get the chance to play with you."

"Oh, I dream of the night, dear Alexander," Narcissus moaned, his eyes heavy-lidded and his hips swaying a little in place. "I think we could teach each other some truly wonderful things."

"Call me some time," Xander said, walking over to stand next to Jean-Claude. "We'll have a party. Everyone invited."

Narcissus laughed and waved his hand at his people. "Come on, Alexander didn't need our company this time. Maybe next time he'll let us play."

Jason felt a shiver of dread go down his spine as the werehyenas slipped back into the darkness and disappeared like they were never there.

Maybe the breeze had been going the wrong direction. Maybe they were just abnormally quiet. Whatever it was, the werehyenas had been there and he hadn't even smelled or sensed them watching. And judging by the looks on everyone else's face, they hadn't either. Only Xander, with his knowing grin, had known the werehyenas were there.

Xander brushed his hands together. "Well, that was fun." He grinned at Jean-Claude. "Let's go home. I'm feeling a little... peckish."

"Wait a fucking minute!" Anita yelled, shaking off Asher's restraining hands. "I demand an explanation. What the hell was that... that thing? Why was Narcissus here? And..."

Xander held up his hand. "I told you, that was a demon. Just 'cause you didn't want to believe me doesn't make it not real. And about Narcissus... no."

"No? What fucking 'no'?" She crowded against him, aggression rising from her in near palpable waves.

Xander gave her a calm look, his murderous tendencies tamped down by the fresh demon kill. "Look Anita, I don't want to play your fucking games. Narcissus is my business and you're gonna leave it alone unless you want me to hurt you. Now, we're all gonna go home. You're gonna call the police and say you found a reference to a creature called the Onwerkelijk Kind from wherever it is you get your monster information. The police are gonna come out and find this dead body and that's gonna be that."

"Oh yeah, well who are they gonna think killed it?" Anita demanded.

Xander smiled. "Why, your dear friend Mr. Death did the deed, didn't you know? If you check up on the hitman bulletin boards, why, all the news is about how Death was offered the job of killing the freaky demon creature that liked to play with cops' heads and make them do stupid ass shit. He even made $50,000 for the job. I know, chump change for him, but everyone knows he likes a challenge."

"What... how did you..."

"Come on, this is the 21st century, right?" Xander laughed. "Kids learn how to use the intarweb in high school, and even though I didn't have much time for the learning, I did pick up a few things before I died. Now," he turned to Jean-Claude, "can we get home so I can get a little help with this chub I'm sporting?" He cupped his crotch with one hand suggestively.

"Oh Alexander, you are insatiable," Jean-Claude said, amusement lurking in his eyes.

Jason thought the old Jean-Claude would have been disgusted by someone as childish and thuggish as Xander could be, but strangely, Jean-Claude seemed to get off on it. All the outrageous things Xander did only seemed to make Jean-Claude like him more, as weird as that was.

The longer Xander was around them, the more monstrous Jean-Claude and Asher seemed to become, the thin veneer of civility peeling back to show what was inside. It should have been horrifying and frightening and all that bad stuff, but a part of Jason actually seemed to like it. And that was a bit scarier than anything else.

The savage enjoyment Xander took in violence and the way his every word seemed to pull tighter the masks people wore only made it easier for Jason to see what he was becoming. He was food for the vampires. He was a hedonistic whore, selling his blood for the chance to wallow in luxury while never even contemplating what his future was going to be.

He had long since come to accept the fact that he wasn't ever going to be old. But now he was accepting the fact that he wasn't going to be human either.

And it really wasn't that bad.

 

=THE END=

 

A/N: JtAH 4 will begin shortly, picking up where this one left off. Some familiar and oft-loved/hated faces are going to be making an appearance, though they're not quite the people we know.

"You're a cold-hearted bitch, aren't you?" Spike said to Xander.  
\--JOURNEY TO ANOTHER HELL IV

 


End file.
